I thought Steven had given up.

How wrong I was. Here we go! :

Hey Steve,

>I noticed you have much doubt.

That’s because no one, including you, has provided a shred of evidence.

>It is sad that you would compare the modern, devilish concept of the fictitious “Santa Clause” with all the false, satanic introductions of flying reindeer, North Pole residence, sliding down chinmeys, and blasphemous songs which sing, “…you better not should, you better not pout, you better not cry, I’m telling you why…he sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake, he knows when you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake…”

As far as I know, the whole Santa Clause deal has nothing to do with Satanism and I have no idea how you could draw such a conclusion. Be that as it may, Satan is just as fictitious as Santa Clause and God. Funny how you find one ridiculously implausible situation (Santa) so difficult to believe and yet you find another completely implausible situation (God) so easy. Why is this? What’s the difference? The only huge one I can think of is that Santa Clause isn’t described in a 1,000 page book. But that makes God no less fictitious.

I also don’t understand why you consider a Christmas carol blasphemous.

>You see how the weak in the faith and shallow in the faith and the various secular ideas that have reduced various practices within the churches and those who may be associated with churches to lies. Santa Clause and the traditions associated with it are nearly all false and filled with lies.

Nearly all false? What part is true? And how are any aspects lies? “Lies” suggests that someone intentionally made something up in order to deceive someone else.

>This is not what Christianity is about. Do not put your trust in what you see with your eyes.

Why not? At least I can have an objective, verifiable account with my eyes. And yes, I am aware of the difficulty in eyewitnesses, so I’m not saying that witnessing with the eyes is always reliable, but it’s much more reliable than unverifiable 2nd hand accounts.

>Do not trust the vain shows which fail at demonstrating the eccentials of the faith.

I don’t know what those are or what you mean.

>Have you read the Scriptures?

Much of them, yes.

>Have you examined these claims from the Word of Scripture?

Yes.

>Or do you merely rely on watered down testimony of fence-riding hypocrites?

In all honesty, every single religious person with whom I’ve spoken has been a hypocrite, including yourself.

>If you want to know more about the faith, examine the Scriptures for yourself. You can search the Scriptures at:

But Steven, that doesn’t work. If reading Scripture were enough to convince me of all your insane claims, I would’ve converted long ago. Taht’s why I’m asking you all these questions, to have you explain to me why I should believe any of this hogwash. And yet you, just like every single other religious person, do nothing more than cite more Scripture. There is no way to objectively, repetitively verify any of Scripture. And until there is, it’s all ridiculous nonsense to me.

I’ll continue with your latest message…

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And then:

Hey Steven,

Continuing…

>Here you have the testimony of the law of God and that God also abides by His law in the sense of judgement and justice. You asked the question, “why doesn’t He just forgive?” I assume you think that He should simply snap the finger and abolish the law.

Why not? Human laws are altered or done away with all the time. I don’t see why an all-powerful deity can’t do the same thing.

>Well as you read in Psalms138:2, He has magnified His Word (which is synonymous to His law) above all His name, which is like speaking of His character and all Who He is

Are you saying that God’s made his Word more powerful than even He? I don’t understand.

>Another passage from the New Testament Scriptures speaks in like manner.

Mat 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
Mat 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

But none of this answers my question of why God doesn’t just forgive sin. Why is all this Law necessary?

>The arrangement with Christ is to save His people from their sins.

Ug. We’re just going around in a circle. If God is all-powerful, why doesn’t he just get rid of sins and forgive people?

By your own word “arrangement” it presumes that God needs to make an arrangement. But He’s God! Why does God need to make an
arrangement?? He can do anything He wants, right? So yeah, just snap your fingers and forgive everyone! Why not?

But why do any of this? Why is it necessary to sacrifice anyone, let alone God’s own son?

>If you are familiar with the Old Testament laws regarding animal sacrifice for the atonement for sins commited, then you may not yet understand that these laws were a foreshadowing demonstrating parabolically the true need for the eternal atonement which Jesus Christ made in the laying down of His own life.

“True need”?? But all that is described in the Old Testament God has power over as he’s all-powerful! So why create all the laws regarding animal sacrifice to begin with? And if God were going to eventually send his Son to take on sin, why create the animal sacrifice laws to begin with? For that matter, why not start with his Son and get the whole dying-for-sins thing over with before it even starts? For that matter, why have sin at all? For that mater, why have judgement at all?

>If you had a chance to read the entire chapter of Romans 3, you may have noticed in verse 19 where is spoken of condemnation, and the means by which God condemns the world (all those who are not in Christ).

Why have condemnation or a means by which God condemns? God’s all-powerful so he could simply choose not to do it this way.

>The law of God shows us our sinfulness and our nakedness in the sight of God.

Our “sinfulness” is only because God allows there to be sin. If there were no sin, there would be no sinfulness. The only reason we’re “naked” in the sight of God is that He’s made the world the way it is.

>The law of God takes two forms. Either in the for of condemnation, or in the form of salvation through the Gospel truth. If a person thinks that by trying to adhere to keeping the commandment and does not have Jesus Christ as their Sacrificial atonement, then the law of God will judge them as sinners (…for all have sinned…) and condemn them.

That’s ridiculous. So even if you’ve followed the Law, God doesn’t care if you haven’t accepted Jesus. What if you follow Jesus, but not the Law?

>But if a person has Jesus Christ as their Sacrificial atonement, then He stands in their place as recipient of this condemnation and being that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, He being resurrected from the dead after His three day burial, has provided justification for His people.

Resurrection from the dead is a myth. It’s also unclear how this atones for anything. And as I recall, Lazarus and others also rose from the dead. So clearly, in ancient Israel, resurrecting from the dead was a pretty common thing to do. Given that, what makes Jesus’ resurrection so special?

>His people are rendered righteous because of the work of Christ. No longer naked, but are clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ and preserved until the day of redemption of our bodies. To review the typifying nature of the passover, the historic miracle of the keeping of the children of Israel from the tenth plague of slaying the firstborn by means of covering all that were in the house with the blood upon the door posts (2sides and upper), show the strength of the sacrifice of the chosen Lamb of God, which is Jesus Christ.

The only part of this I understood was painting the door with blood, which, in turn, I’ve never understood. If God is all-powerful, can’t He see who is or who is not among His people without teh benefit of blood on a door?

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Still more:

Steven,

>Well when Judgement day comes,

You have no evidence for this.

>and if you remain an unbeliever, facing the full wrath of God without Christ as you substitute, it will be too late.

You have no evidence for this.

>The end is near.

You have no evidence for this. All I’m asking is for evidence. You can’t provide any. Why do you believe any of this? What if you’re wrong? What if Zeus is coming? What if Odin is coming? Then you will have wasted your time worshipping the wrong god and boy will Zeus be pissed!

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And more:

Steven,

>This particular song I mentioned exaults “Santa Claus” to a position of omnipresence, which is only The Lord God possesses.

What’s your evidence for this?

>As far as lies and Santa Claus and the conclussion that the ficticious tales of “Santa Claus” which have crept into the Christian circles, and elsewhere, being of the devil is the case.

You’re saying the Devil made people sing carols and create stories about Santa? Why didn’t God stop the Devil? I thought God was all-powerful.

>This nonsense weakens the faith of some starting at such an early age.

But if God is all-powerful, how could faith in him be weakened?

>Did your parents celebrate Christmas?

To some degree, yes.

>Did they offer gifts to you when you were a child and say they were from “Santa”?

For a few years, yes. Then they told me it wasn’t real. Funny how we are also so ready to let go of one myth, but not another.